1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to multi-media conferencing systems and, more particularly, a multi-media conferencing system with individually controllable display sectors, geo-location display functionality, participant monitoring, attendee chat functionality, and a wide range of additional functionality under the control of the conference presenter and attendees.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today's sales, marketing, education, training and overall corporate meetings require a significant amount of travel to meet face to face with the necessary participants of these meetings. With travel costs skyrocketing, corporate budgets decreasing and the need for companies to demand more production and efficiencies from their staff the need for a new way of meeting has come to the forefront. The traditional web-based conference calls and meetings are not viable resolutions to these needs. With today's economy, the need to do more with less, reduce costs but improve results is paramount. Companies spend millions of dollars in travel costs to get their executives, salespeople, product installation and training teams, managers and directors to meetings with customers or internal training, education and strategy sessions. The need for this face-to-face connection is of paramount importance for many companies.
While there are options for connecting with customers and others besides the face-to-face meeting, the fact that other means of communications fall short of the face-to-face connection continues to force companies to use physical travel as the primary means for meetings, training, educational and strategy sessions. This is driven by the inability of current computer-based web conferencing systems to give the same personal interaction through seeing the participating parties, recognizing that their body language does not match their verbal communications, that multiple participants cannot be actively and physically viewable and verbal, and the loss of the critical personal touch of interaction between all parties. The ability to share data interactively, collaborate and manage document changes are also lacking in today's web conferencing products.
The average cost of a two-day business trip without entertainment can range from $750 to $1,100 per day, per person. This includes airfare, hotel and a meal per diem. Other cash costs associated with the actual event of travel is parking fees, rental cars, fuel and tips. Non-cash costs for a business trip includes nonproductive time going to and from the airport, waiting for the flight to board, flight delays, lost opportunity to attend other meetings during that two-day timeframe, catch up time after the trip along with the critical cost of being away from family.
Today conference calls, web-based conferences and video conferencing are being utilized. Conference calls allow the presenter to speak to with all participants utilizing a dial in number and most participants can verbally respond. However, true interactivity is lost, while individuals in the audience can become lost in the presentation material because the group often does not have effective visualization or other information to help them follow along other than what the speaker is imparting.
Computer-based web conferencing systems are able to provide limited levels of visual and verbal content but they utilize two media components, the web and a telephone line. They also have significant limitations in the number of participants who can join the conference due to bandwidth issues. With computer-based web conferencing, the participants can see the presentation and in some cases the presenter, but their ability to interact real time with other participants and independently with the data is severely limited. With the limited access to true interaction come severe restrictions on the ability to interact with both data and participants at the same time from an independent perspective.
For example, there is typically no way to determine whether participants actually leave the meeting once they sign in or if they are working on other items instead of participating in the session because these options are basically a one way communication. The newer versions of computer-based web conferencing allow some interaction but they are limited in the ability for the presenter to share interactive documents and for participants to interact with the presenter and other participants.
Other areas where traditional computer-based web conferencing or conference calls fall short is the ability to communicate with the presenter with immediate feedback that allows for modification in speed or content of the presentation during the session. Without this particular option, there may be no way to ensure that the learning experience provided by the meeting is a positive one of that the presentation content and positioning are being fully understood by the attendees.
With conventional conferencing systems, it may also be difficult to know exactly who is on the call/session since there is usually no mechanism providing identification of the participants. Most computer-based web conferencing programs provide a list of attendees that is generally first name only. This basic list does not allow other participants and the presenter to know anything more about the audience that enables tailoring of the presentation, etc.
Video conferencing allows people to see and hear each other, but it requires a huge initial investment in video and monitoring equipment for any party wanting to participate in the conference. Then there is the expensive per-minute charge to transmit the conference utilizing the satellite system and the need to transport people to the video conference area still demands travel costs are incurred. The current overall experience of conference calls and computer-based web conferencing is a one-way communication channel that, while oftentimes mandated by the circumstances, leaves the audience and the presenter with a sense of boredom and a “why bother” attitude. There is, therefore, a continuing need for improved electronic conferencing systems.